Distribution and temporal behaviour of O3 and NO2 near selected schools in Seberang Perai, Pulau Pinang and Parit Buntar, Perak, Malaysia

Air quality has deteriorated in urban areas as a result of increased anthropogenic activities. Quantitative information on the influence of meteorological conditions on several pollutants in a tropical climate is still lacking. Real-time ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels were measured nearby selected schools in Malaysia to examine the impact of meteorological factors on monitoring pollutants. The results showed the overall 10 min average concentrations of the main parameters during school holiday were 24 ppb (O3) and 33 ppb (NO2) while during school day the overall 10 min average concentrations were 26 ppb (O3) and 51 ppb (NO2). Although there are no minimum requirements for short-term exposure by MAAQG, if compared to 1 h average requirements, all concentrations were still below the suggested values. Regarding spatial distribution, a different trend in pollutant concentration among the schools was observed because of the influence of temperature (AT) and wind speed (WS). The results were verified by Pearson correlation, where signifi cant correlations (p<0.01) were determined between air pollutants and meteorological factors, which were temperature, wind speed and relative humidity. Meanwhile, the distribution of O3 was moderately correlated with NO2. However, the results of multivariate analysis indicate that temperature and relative humidity had the most significant influence on the formation of O3. In summary, the results of this study showed that all precursors and meteorological parameters contribute to the production of O3. Hence, reducing O3 precursors, which are emitted by vehicles, is essential to lessening the exposure to O3

Functional chain analysis for a new built nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plants (NPP) are well-known for their multidisciplinary character as well as the high degree of coupling and interaction between their elements. Consequently, regulatory bodies tend to induce a massive number of requirements to ensure the nuclear safety of the power plant, these requirements aim to apply the defence-in-depth (DiD) safety approach. In Fennovoima Hanhikivi 1 (FH1) NPP, the DiD approach is applied through formalizing functional entities which are assigned to various DiD levels. Each functional entity consists of safety functions that share common non-functional de-sign requirements including safety class, failure criterion, diversity, separation, seismic and environmental requirements. By investigating the safety functions of FH1 NPP, one concludes that they are significantly interconnected and exchange a huge number of signals. Therefore, verifying each safety function independently is not effective because a function may seem to perform its function when it is considered alone, but challenges are found when also the interconnected functions are considered. Thus, it becomes essential to verify the whole functional chain which can be defined as a set of safety functions that interact together to guarantee the success of plant systems. In this study, a methodology for performing the functional chain analysis has been developed and formalized. The methodology mainly targets verifying five aspects of the functional chain which are: measurements, actuators, processing logic, human-machine interface, and cabling between various components. Furthermore, two prototypes for a review-ing tool, that performs the functional chain analysis, have been developed utilizing MATLAB and Microsoft Access. Finally, the developed methodology was applied to the high-pressure safety injection functional chain of FH1 NPP. The application of the methodology revealed design issues that need to be further clarified with the plant supplier. The main usefulness of the functional chain analysis is that it can be considered as one more last check before the equipment of FH1 NPP systems are physically manufactured

An Interpretive Analysis of how Audit Quality is Perceived in Economies in Transition

With the movement of many internationalaccounting firms into Egypt, and the growth of local auditfirms, it is particularly interesting, and relevant forgovernmental legislators, to study how the providers of theaudit service perceive the quality of what they do. In thissense, the purpose of this paper is to report the perceptions ofprofessional auditors in Egypt concerning how they perceivethe quality of the service they provide. The paper also analyzesdifferences between perceptions of the Big 4 audit firms andother local audit firms. Based on 28 semi-structuredinterviews, it was revealed that the interviewees generallybelieved that the audit quality is preserved high in thepresence of four factors: (1) high ethical standards to guideand regulate the profession; (2) a well planned and conductedaudit; (3) a more knowledgeable audit team; and (4) having agood relationship with the client management

Macro and Micro Earnings Manipulation: The Role of Accounting Standard Setting Process

Preparers of financial statements are in aposition to influence the view of economic reality presented inthose statements to interested parties. The term 'macromanipulation'is used to describe the lobbying of preparersagainst regulators (accounting standards setters) to persuadethem to produce regulation that is more favorable to theinterests of preparers. The aime of this paper is to introduce asuggested tool that could be used to ascertain why somefinancial accounting standards turn out to the benefit of one ofthe stakeholders involved in the process of accountingstandards setting. This paper utilizes the construct of power toreveal the influences from parties involved in the process ofaccounting standards setting. The comprehensive incomereporting standard is used in this paper as an example of thesetypes of standard that may involve 'macro-manipulation'

The Usefulness of Different Accounting Earnings Measures: The Case of Egypt

The objective of this paper is to investigate whichmeasure of accounting income (comprehensive income,operating income, or net income) is more useful to equityinvestors in explaining future earnings, future cash flows, andstock returns. This study proposes that different measures ofincome are more useful for different uses. The research isundertaken within the Egyptian environment that allowsconsiderable asset revaluations and holds the reporting ofextraordinary items. Therefore, such environment provides arich ground for testing the expected effects of reportingcomprehensive income and its components on the Egyptianinvestors. The results do not support the superiority ofcomprehensive income measures in explaining the followingperiod’s net income compared to net income. None of the fourtested measures of earnings is able to explain the followingperiod’s cash flows. Operating income is superior to the otherthree measures of income in explaining stock return

Ultra-Dense Networks in 5G and Beyond: Challenges and Promising Solutions

Ultra-Dense Network (UDN) is one of the promising and leading directions in Fifth Generation and beyond (5GB) networks. In UDNs, Small Cells (SCs) or Small Base Stations (SBSs) such as microcells, picocells, or femtocells are deployed in high densities where inter-site distances are within the range of few or tens of meters. UDNs also require that SCs are typically deployed in relatively large densities compared to the Human-Type Communication Users (HTCUs) such as smartphones, tablets, and/or laptops. Such SCs are characterized by their low transmission powers, small coverage areas, and low cost. Hence, the deployment of the SCs can be done either by the cellular network operators or by the customers themselves within their premises to maintain certain levels of Quality of Service (QoS). However, the randomness of the deployment of the SCs along with the small inter-site distances may degrade the achievable performance due to the uncontrolled Inter-Cell Interference (ICI). Therefore, idle mode capability is an inevitable feature in the high-density regime of SCs. In idle mode, a SC is switched off to prevent ICI when no user is associated to it. In doing so, we can imagine the UDN as a mobile network that keeps following the users to remain as close as possible to them. In 5G, different use cases are required to be supported such as enhanced Mobile Broad-Band (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communication (mMTC). On one hand, the inevitable upcoming era of smart living requires unprecedented advances in enabling technologies to support the main building blocks of this era which are Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Machine-Type Communication (MTC), the cellular version of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, constitutes the main enabling technology to support communications among such devices with minimal or even without human intervention. The massive number of these devices, Machine-Type Communication Devices (MTCDs), and the immense amount of traffic generated by them require a paramount shift in cellular and non-cellular wireless technologies to achieve the required connectivity. On the other hand, the sky-rocketing number of data hungry applications installed on human-held devices, or HTCUs, such as video conferencing and virtual reality applications require their own advances in the wireless infrastructure in terms of high capacity, enhanced reliability, and reduced latency. Throughout this thesis, we exploit the UDN infrastructure integrated with other 5G resources and enabling technologies to explore the possible opportunities in supporting both HTC and MTC, either solely or simultaneously. Given the shorter distances between transmitters and receivers encountered in UDNs, more realistic models of the path loss must be adopted such as the Stretched Exponential Path Loss (SEPL) model. We use tools from stochastic geometry to formulate novel mathematical frameworks that can be used to investigate the achievable performance without having to rely on extensive time-consuming Monte-Carlo simulations. Besides, the derived analytical expressions can be used to tune some system parameters or to propose some approaches/techniques that can be followed to optimize the performance of the system under certain circumstances. Tackling practical scenarios, the complexity, or sometimes in-feasibility, of providing unlimited backhaul capacity for the massive number of SCs must be considered. In this regard, we adopt multiple-association where each HTCU is allowed to associate with multiple SCs. By doing so, we carefully split the targeted traffic among several backhaul links to mitigate the bottleneck forced by limited backhaul capacities. It is noteworthy that for coexisting MTCDs with the HTCUs, activating more SCs would allow more MTCDs to be supported without introducing additional ICI towards the HTCUs. Targeting different application, multiple-association can be also adopted to tackle computation-intensive applications of HTCUs. In particular, for applications such as augmented reality and environment recognition that require heavy computations, a task is split and partially offloaded to multiple SCs with integrated Edge Computing Servers (ECSs). Then, the task partitions are processed in parallel to reduce the end-to-end processing delay. Based on relative densities between HTCUs and SCs, we use tools from stochastic geometry to develop an offline adaptive task division technique that further reduces the average end-to-end processing delay per user. With the frequent serious data breaches experienced in recent years, securing data has become more of a business risk rather than an information technology (IT) issue. Hence, we exploit the dense number of SCs found in UDN along with Physical Layer Security (PLS) protocols to secure data transfer. In particular, we again adopt multiple-association and split the data of HTCUs into multiple streams originating from different SCs to prevent illegitimate receivers from eavesdropping. To support massive number of MTCDs, we deploy the Non-Orthogonal Multiple-Access (NOMA) technique. Using power NOMA, more than one device can be supported over the same frequency/time resource and their signals are distinguished at the receiver using Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC). In the same scope, exploiting the available resources in 5G and beyond networks, we investigate a mMTC scenario in an UDN operating in the Millimeter Wave (mmWave) band and supported by wireless backhauling. In doing so, we shed lights on the possible gains of utilizing the mmWave band where the severe penetration losses of mmWave can be exploited to mitigate the significant ICI in UDNs. Also, the vast bandwidth available in the mmWave band helps to allocate more Resource Blocks (RBs) per SCs which corresponds to supporting more MTCDs

Hydrogen-enriched combustion study at high turbulence and swirl levels inside a gas turbine combustor

Given the limited reserves of fossil fuels and the environmental ramifications of their burning; a transfer to new energy resources is all but inevitable. Hydrogen-blended fuel is a promising resource for future generations of Gas Turbine Engines (GTE), due to its high reactivity and ability to reduce carbon emissions. However, several limitations prevent its application, especially for swirl configurations. The literature does not account for the hydrogen-swirl-equivalence ratio interaction at high turbulence levels, a shortcoming this dissertation addresses. The main objective of this research is to numerically investigate the effects of hydrogen addition (to methane) and swirl intensity on the combustion process under relevant GTE conditions. A numerical study is conducted to assess Hydrogen-Enriched Combustion (HEC) in a lab-scale burner operating at a high turbulence level (Rein = 36,000 and u'/Sl L up to 45), under lean and stoichiometric burning conditions. A wide range of H2 (up to 90%) is used for enriching CH4-air lean combustion, in combination with a high swirl level (S up to 1.3). The study reveals the feasibility of using H2-CH4 blends with 25% H2 to replace CH4 in the primary stages of GTE operation, and of using up to 90% and 60% H2 to enrich lean and stoichiometric combustion, respectively, without any design modification. Under the studied conditions, it is found that H2 addition raises the reaction zone temperature, reduces the size of the Inner Recirculation Zone (IRZ), responsible for stabilizing the flame, and results in longer flames, due to the interaction between the high reactivity of H2 with a high turbulence level. Conversely, the swirl intensity is found to reduce the flame surface area and associated heat release, increase the IRZ size, in addition to resulting in shorter flames, due to an increased turbulent intensity. Hence, increasing the swirl intensity is favoured when using H2-blended fuel with high H2 concentrations. Radiation is considered for all simulations and found influential, as it yields a reduction of the outlet temperature by not less than 100 K, thus reducing emissions by half. A moderate H2 concentration (up to 50%) and swirl intensity up to 1.3 are found to slightly increase NOx; however, such an increase is not deemed significant, for as long as NOx levels are generally in the order of a few ppm at the burner’s outlet. H2 results in reducing CO, as it promotes CO conversion into CO2, which was also reduced as the H2 concentration increased. Overall, hydrogen-blended fuel is highlighted as an encouraging resource towards a carbon-free fuel and HEC is deemed as a clean combustion approach

Characterization of Chemical Composition in Fine Particles (PM2.5) from Industrial Site in Malaysia

This research aims to investigate variations of fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) and chemical composition in an industrialized area. Concentration levels of fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) were continuously monitored at three sampling site S1, S2 and S3. The variations of PM2.5 concentration were analysed using descriptive statistics, time series plot, diurnal plot and correlation. Source apportionment and factor analysis were carried out using the chemical composition data from ICP-OES. Meteorological effects on PM2.5 concentration were used to investigate the effects on PM2.5 concentration. The results showed that, the average PM2.5 concentration was 19.75 ± 12, 46.68 ± 27, and 20.55 ± 9 ?g m-3 at sites in a S1, S2 and S3, respectively. The highest PM2.5 concentration was recorded in S2 (115 ?g m-3). The PM2.5 concentration in the diurnal plot exhibited an inversed unimodal pattern during morning (7:00 to 9:00) and evening (16:00 to 18:00). PM2.5 concentration in S2 on weekends was 36% lower than that on weekdays. PM2.5 was found to exhibit an inversed relation with wind speed and temperature. Although wind speed had a negative association with PM2.5 in S1 and S2, a positive correlation was observed at S3. Source apportionment from factor analysis distinguished three groups of possible sources; crustal materials (Al, K, Sr, Ti and Na), vehicles emission (Cr, Fe, Mn, Zn and Ni) and industrial activities (Ca, Mg and Pb)

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice towards Occupational Health and Safety among Nursing Students in Gaza Strip, Palestine

Health and safety in the workplace are critical components in healthcare institutions. Unsafe working conditions are among the causes of poor&nbsp; quality of care and burnout. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of occupational health and safety among nursing&nbsp; students at Al-Israa University. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a structured online questionnaire was distributed from March to May 2021. Of the 350 eligible students, 219&nbsp; students answered the questionnaire (Response rate=62.6). Data were analyzed using the statistical software IBM-SPSS version 22. Descriptive&nbsp; statistic, Independent- samples T-Test, and ANOVA tests were used. Results: The majority of participants were female (81.7%) and studying in a diploma program. 21% of nursing students have experienced a needle&nbsp; stick injury. The mean scores for knowledge, attitudes, and practice were (M±SD:78.2% ±12.9, M±SD:80.6% ±7.1, and M±SD:81.2% ±7.6) respectively.&nbsp; In terms of knowledge, attitudes, and practice the mean scores were statistically significant between nursing students who attended a safety&nbsp; precautions course and those who didn not (P-value &lt;.05). In terms of attitudes, the mean scores were statistically significant between diploma and&nbsp; bachelor students (P-value =.026).In terms of practice, the means scores were statistically significant between males and females (P-value =.017),&nbsp; nursing students who had experience with needle sticks and those who didn’t (P-value =.015). Conclusion: The authors recommend that clinical&nbsp; training departments and universities continue to offer occupational health and safety courses and training for health science students. Since the&nbsp; training had a positive impact on the students' practices.&nbsp